The bill, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2011, tweaks the Social Security Act so that seniors' time spent under observation status at a hospital would satisfy the three-day stay skilled nursing requirement for Medicare coverage. Currently, in order to have skilled nursing care after a hospitalization, a Medicare beneficiary must be considered a hospital inpatient. If the patient is admitted for an observation stay, Medicare can deny coverage and the patient must pay out-of-pocket for subsequent nursing home care.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the Senate version of the bill, and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Tom Latham (R-IA) introduced the House version.

"This common sense change will ensure that seniors no longer face thousands of dollars in bills for skilled care because of an arbitrary federal policy," said Courtney. "There are no two ways about it: Three days in the hospital are three days in the hospital. Anyone who meets that threshold should receive the same benefit from Medicare."

While long-term care professionals have at least two more weeks to agonize over the fate of a bill that would permanently repeal the current Medicare physicians funding formula, a host of other key funding "extenders" set to expire also hang in the balance.

Nearly four months into the year, a 2015 calendar sporting nude photographs of the residents of Pleasant Pointe Assisted Living in Akron, OH, are still flying out the door — so much so that a second printing was ordered.